Been Lurking, first post
Hi, been creeping around for a while, so I might as well introduce myself.
For my midlife crisis, I am learning to play music. When I was in HS I played bass in couple punk bands in the mid eighties. So 30 years later here I am trying playing music. I can blame my wife for this. We have a VW camper and everytime we would camp I would say this "it would be nice to have something an instrument to mess with by the campfire". So she surprises me with a ukulele.
Several Years ago, my wife lost her mother to cancer. My wife grew up next door to Tony Trischka and they are family friends. My mother in-law loved David Bowie and my wife asked Tony to play Changes at the funeral. Tony played banjo of course and his son Sean played mandolin. They arranged the song for the banjo and the mando the night before the funeral and the result was incredible. It may have been the funeral and loss of a loved one, but the way in which they played Changes brought tears to everyones eyes. It was like I saw the mandolin for the first time.
So flash forward to now. Once I started to get the hang of the uke, I am in the music store looking at stuff and the mandolin keeps catching my eye. I love Bluegrass and if I am not listening to punk, so since the funeral, everytime I am listening to bluegrass or even country, I am listening for the mando. Last summer I find a Johnson F type in craigslist for $40. It is an attractive, yet terrible piece of work. I am taking lessons (both private and group) and once the basics fell into place, I started trying other mandos, and realize, that dispite a luthier doing a great set up, that Johnso will do nothing other than frustrate me.
This week after reading the forums, speaking with players, trying every mandoline I could (only in the price point I could manage mind you) I went with a Kentucky KM-150 from my local music shop. So lets see what happens now.
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